England contemplate the spinning option

This is more like it. All England's tour needed was a change of scene. After days of downpours so predictable you could set your watch by them, the England squad have pitched up in Galle, where the rains have temporarily lost track of their movements, give or take a sprinkling of a shower in the late afternoon. Today's practice session at the international stadium was stiflingly hot - so hot, in fact, that one half-longed for the usual claps of thunder and one of those refreshing ten-minute deluges.

Instead, the team got stuck into a three-hour sweatathon, at the end of which Michael Vaughan was edging his thoughts towards a spin-based attack - which would represent quite a U-turn in strategy after the dominance of England's seamers in Bangladesh. "We have to consider all options at a venue like this," said Vaughan. "Galle is one of those horses-for-courses grounds, and in the next 36 hours we will have to come up with the best formula to approach a one-off Test."

If visualisation has been a big part of England's preparations in the recent rain-blighted fortnight, then the sight of a typically flat, dry, grassless pitch will have given many of the squad the heebie-jeebies. It was on this ground, two and a half years ago, that Marvan Atapattu sailed serenely to 201 not out in 170 overs, as England lost their tempers and several gallons of sweat, en route to an innings-and-28-run defeat.

"The conditions are very similar to last time around," confirmed Vaughan, who did not play in that match, but watched from the sidelines as his current opening partner, Marcus Trescothick scored 40% of England's runs and, according to Michael Atherton, made the rest of the batsmen "look like fools".

"The pitch should play well for the first two days, " added Vaughan, before admitting his first and most important job will be to win the toss on Tuesday morning - a tough ask for a man who has lost seven out of eight tosses in all international cricket since the Trent Bridge Test last summer. Thereafter, it will be over to England's posse of spinners. Ashley Giles and Gareth Batty seem to have cemented the first two slots. It remains to be seen whether Robert Croft's late charge amid the Colombo showers will sway the selectors.

In keeping with their try-anything-once attitude for this match, Andrew Flintoff was handed the new ball in a tough nets session, just so that all options were covered. "A wicket like this would definitely favour three fulltime spinners," said Vaughan, who seems strangely reluctant to bowl himself these days. Then again, once you've bowled Sachin Tendulkar through the gate, as Vaughan did at Trent Bridge in his annus mirabilis of 2002, everything else must pale in comparison.

Another contender for the new-ball role, and the most unlikely option since Mark Waugh filled in for Craig McDermott in the 1993 Lord's Test, would be Rikki Clarke. "He definitely has a chance of playing," enthused Vaughan, although James Kirtley's late burst of form in the warm-up game in Colombo has caused one of those habitual selectorial headaches.

In fact, the only man who has not been mentioned in dispatches is Richard Johnson, England's nine-wicket hero of the Chittagong Test. It is unlikely that he would displace the industrious Matthew Hoggard if there were only a solitary seamer's position up for grabs, so Johnson faces a nervous wait before he can add to his 15 bargain-basement wickets in two Tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

"We need to be a bit lenient on the seamers," said Vaughan - an interesting choice of words, seeing as Sanath Jayasuriya and co. will have no intention of that sort. "Gough, Caddick and White were all outstanding [in 2001], but none of them are here this time." But it is a measure of how decimated England's fast-bowling stocks have become that they can countenance such a drastic change of policy.

Then again, it is equally unusual that an England touring side has taken their cue from the opposition. Every indication from the Sri Lankan camp suggests that they intend to shoehorn three spinners into their starting line-up as well. "Kumar Dharmasena and Upul Chandana are a pair of experienced bowlers to partner Muttiah Muralitharan," said Sri Lanka's captain, Hashan Tillakaratne, "and I am sure they will surprise a few people."

Jayasuriya is likely to resume his spinning allrounder's role - with 16 English scalps, he was the top wicket-taker in the series last time around - and this Test is beginning to resemble, on paper at least, a throwback to the 1950s, with perhaps as many as eight frontline spin options to get the purists purring.

For that comparison to be completed, however, there will need to be an improvement in on-field relations - something that both captains have been keen to emphasise since the filthy-tempered fracas in 2001. "We will be playing it hard but fair," confirmed Vaughan. "A bit of banter is good for the game, so long as it doesn't get out of hand."

"We are keen, fresh and ready," added Tillakaratne, whose team has not played a Test since June. "We know England are a well-balanced side with a world-class top six, and we fully expect a high-scoring series."

Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Hashan Tillakaratne (capt), 6 Romesh Kaluwitharana (wk), 7 Kumar Dharmasena, 8 Upul Chandana, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Dinusha Fernando, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.

England (possible): 1 Michael Vaughan (capt), 2 Marcus Trescothick, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain, 5 Graham Thorpe, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Ashley Giles, 9 Robert Croft, 10 Gareth Batty, 11 Matthew Hoggard.